By: Rich Moseson, W2VU

Closing day at 2025 Dayton Hamvention® is a half-day on the clock, but for the team from ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®, it was a full day of activities packed into a shorter period of time. There were four forums to lead — the “ARRL FCC Update” with Monitoring Program Director and former FCC Special Counsel Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH; “ARRL Youth Outreach Through STEM,” anchored by Education and Learning Manager Steve Goodgame, K5ATA; the “ARRL Radiosport Forum — Level Up!”, led by Radiosport and Field Services Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ; and Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KF5MHV, moderated “ARES – Building Relationships in Public Service."

Johnston noted as examples of these relationships the fact that the heads of both Army and Air Force MARS were in the audience, while Hollingsworth urged amateurs to operate with courtesy and respect, and to “stay off the radar screen” of those who don’t understand amateur radio but may have influence over frequency allocations. He also reminded his audience that “there is no one representing amateur radio before the FCC except ARRL.”

Outside the forum rooms, about half of the two dozen young hams who had participated in Saturday’s Youth Rally returned to make brief 2-meter contacts with skydiver Carlos Ortiz, K9OL, as he parachuted to the ground from an altitude of 14,000 feet; and then to launch an APRS-equipped micro-balloon — transmitting as W1AW-11 — on a hopefully long-distance flight. (At the time of this writing on Sunday afternoon, it was making its way eastward across Virginia.)

Finally, when all the forums, jumps, and launches were over, it was time for the entire ARRL team to pack up the dozen or so booths in the ARRL Expo and say goodbye to Hamvention until next year.